IntroductionI've been playing this file for quite a while. I think I was the one who popularized an early miffy drop with engage souls and resting to a verlaat drop and then field ownage. It is a very powerful file and there are multiple counters that you can pack. It is very nice since most of the cards are included in starters and set 11, which everyone got for free at one point. If you're not one of those people, then I guess you need to pucker some gran for set 11 cards :/

Note On PlayingUntil you drop verlaat or are close to dropping verlaat, do not kill anything with your attacks. You mostly want to rest but you can weaken units if you wish. This is a crucial strategy of this file.

The UnitsChoose one from each category. Each category serves a specific function and the choices depend on your playstyle, card avaliability, and what matchups you wish to do well against.Blue stands for mainstream. Red stands for not recommended. The units choices are ordered in my personal preference.

MiffyCopies: 2-3Moon Child / MiffyreWhat this file is named after. You usually want to drop her as early as possible so that you can sp gen and get out your units faster while preventing your opponent from playing crucial level 1s such as shade and salamander and succubus and cemetery rats. Shades drain your sp. Salamander has too much attack for you to rest through (and killing them furthers your opponent's lead b/c of soul skills). Succubus and cemetery rats provide a one time boost enough to power through your tanks and quickens the pace of the game by forcing soul skill triggers on both sides. This is not something that you would want.The other side is that you gain enough sp to get out mids units every turn.There are some exceptions to this however. If miffyre cannot stand an aggressive early game, particularly against gowen rush, then do not send her out early. You need to play guardian first.

The Level 4 TanksCopies: 3You want to stall and prevent damage to your ranged units using a tank (and later a bit of damage from verlaat by front line crowding). You only need 1 good tank, as they aren't useful except to protect your ranged units. Please don't be one of those guys that toss out 3 front line tanks (chick, vet pally, rubens) and just trolls that way. You might have a great time fighting some files with no offensive power but as soon as you come across a file that has attack snowball or some other defense piercing/counter reducing mechanism, you're completely screwed as you have no offensive power to take out units to prevent further snowballing. This usually leads to ragequits and saying "this and this is OP" when it is really not.The tank needs to be level 4 for a couple of reasons. One is that you do not want your tank returned and level 4 is quite a safe level to be (since wrath gives -1 falkow). If your tank is returned and your opponent kills your ranged units, you're pretty screwed, even if you manage to play him again the turn after since that's 2 copies of your ranged units gone. You do not want that. In addition, you want your tank to last the whole game and level 3s aren't tanky enough to do that. Folrart heavy knight is a big nono since he usually gets killed before he gets setup.The reason why 3 copies is needed is because this guy is going to be taking the blunt of your damage and you do not want him to die early (or get removed).

Folrart GuardianThe first choice of tanks for solar kingdom. It's in the starter. It is quite powerful, especially against falkow where their units are squishy and there are not a lot of units. Counters being tossed on too many of their units means that they are strapped for units by midgame.The counter is quite powerful. The downside of the counter however is that sometimes you do not want to kill anything. This is however quite a beautiful thing b/c it allows for counterplay options. I've moved guardian from row 1 to row 3 a couple of times b/c I really did not want her counter to trigger. There are some situations with her that forces you to really think.

Solar General / ZagarA rare from the newest set. He is a great addition if you wish to be more offensive with your tanks, and is a great choice with falkow. The biggest advantage with him is that one cannot stall the tank out and rest instead of attacking, because he can and will 1 shot one of the rival's units if he/she does that. This is particularly useful against other files that require setup or wish to stall. Most notably, against refess mirrors (if guardian doesn't attack, he 1 shots guardian), against falkow (you can't rest while gening sp with owl in the back as much), and also against bkr (you can't rest and snowball attack damage).The disadvantage is that if he gets a heavy hp reduction from the onset like with urgrant or similar, he does not do much damage both with counter and attacks. That why is usually combo'd with a healer of some sort. I really recommend using him with mermaid priestess, because not only does she heals him, she gives him the needed agi for him to attack multiple times (snowballing attack each time) per turn. Safira is also a valid choice with him since he disengagess when hit. Verlaat is an obvious combo with the heal and df snowballing/engage open (he disengages when hit and now can tank a lot more with 10 more defense on a 80 hp unit). Another choice to make sure that he starts off with enough attack would be to sylph or priest of the royal guard him so he's pretty much guarenteed to get 80 attack the first turn.

The Impregnable / RubensThis is quite possibly the best tank refess has. His counter snowballs to quite an incredible amount if you keep him on the field long enough. However, it is rather disappointing that his counter cannot be buffed in any way other than to have it trigger as many times as possible. That being said, when he gets going, he one shots a lot of things. He is also the tankiest out of all the units listed here and does his job particularly well.One major disadvantage is his auto. If he has 150 hp, he just poofs out of existence. While it does take a couple of turns (3) to do that, you can imagine the unfortunate consequences of having your tank poof and leaving your lines exposed. It is one of the reason why required the tanks be level 4 in the first place. You cannot even replay him that turn. However, this disadvantage can be mitigated by using Assult Battering Ram or Safira to engage Rubens to prevent his auto from activating. The disadvantage to doing this is that you lose the 30 damage on him (though 30 is not a lot).

Blessed Armor KnightBlessed Armor Knight offers more control than any of the previously reviewed tanks because he does not do damage on counter. Instead he gains 30 defense, which is a lot and removes from play a random card in opponent's graveyard. While you do not need more advantage vs undeads (and a good undead player would wait until he has snowballed 70 attack to begin attacking), it does do exceptionally well against augments (since you're removing gaiessoul's food and because his counter would activate before augmented doll's close if opponent plays overdose) and He's more vulnerable to 1 shots (70 dmg) than any of the other tanks listed.

Example FileNote: depending on the meta and what's popular at the current time, souls, techs, and unit choices will change to counter those files.

Closing NotesIf anyone wants to make a replay of this file in action, I will post it here. I'm personally too lazy at this point.Notice that there are a lot of ranged units in this file. A great file concentrating on fielding units will always have more ranged units than front row units.

Files that I am working on/coming up on guides that you can expect in the future:Deep OnesUrgrantLawtia RushesRefess LockEx Lap RushWarriorsSerpent

Last edited by Icyman2 on Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:25 am, edited 2 times in total.

Icyman2 wrote:Note On PlayingUntil you drop verlaat or are close to dropping verlaat, do not kill anything with your attacks. You mostly want to rest but you can weaken units if you wish. This is a crucial strategy of this file.

I would like to highlight this comment. I see too many refess players ignoring this. classical refess has a phase where it denies access to opponents souls.

by the way : why is it myffre control?? dont see why this should be called control..

Icyman2 wrote:Note On PlayingUntil you drop verlaat or are close to dropping verlaat, do not kill anything with your attacks. You mostly want to rest but you can weaken units if you wish. This is a crucial strategy of this file.

I would like to highlight this comment. I see too many refess players ignoring this. classical refess has a phase where it denies access to opponents souls.

by the way : why is it myffre control?? dont see why this should be called control..

Agreed, too many refess players play too aggressively. And yea this isn't really a control file imo, it just seems like a standard Mid-refess file so far. Anyway, icyman's a good player so I look forward to reading his comments on this file.

It's one of the most obvious files free Set11 brought. Dozens of players slapped together Guardian, Judie, Miffy and Verlaat in the first week. I came here to read something about a Refess control file. (units like Mayleen, Safiria, RoyalGuard, Messala, Aano, cem retrieval etc.) Kinda dissapointed I haven't read anything new. Engage&SP SS's been mandatory to Refess to build up a field, and so is passive play first few turns to avoid early Dmg in your buildup... And how is beginning with your SP gen to play bigger units anything new?..

I guess it's a fun read to those completely ignorant to Alteil's past and gameplay. Unfortunatly i wanted to read more about advanced play...

angelspawns wrote:It's one of the most obvious files free Set11 brought. Dozens of players slapped together Guardian, Judie, Miffy and Verlaat in the first week. I came here to read something about a Refess control file. (units like Mayleen, Safiria, RoyalGuard, Messala, Aano, cem retrieval etc.) Kinda dissapointed I haven't read anything new. Engage&SP SS's been mandatory to Refess to build up a field, and so is passive play first few turns to avoid early Dmg in your buildup... And how is beginning with your SP gen to play bigger units anything new?..

I guess it's a fun read to those completely ignorant to Alteil's past and gameplay. Unfortunatly i wanted to read more about advanced play...

A bit nitpick.Judie is not set 11 but yeah I know what do mean...

Also Spawn, why I don't remember you ever share any replay.

"Humans fall to corruption.So too do saints and heroes.There is no stopping it.That in itself is salvation."

angelspawns wrote:It's one of the most obvious files free Set11 brought. Dozens of players slapped together Guardian, Judie, Miffy and Verlaat in the first week. I came here to read something about a Refess control file. (units like Mayleen, Safiria, RoyalGuard, Messala, Aano, cem retrieval etc.) Kinda dissapointed I haven't read anything new. Engage&SP SS's been mandatory to Refess to build up a field, and so is passive play first few turns to avoid early Dmg in your buildup... And how is beginning with your SP gen to play bigger units anything new?..

I guess it's a fun read to those completely ignorant to Alteil's past and gameplay. Unfortunatly i wanted to read more about advanced play...